HE LAUGHED LAST

Frankie Laine and Lucy Marlow

HE LAUGHED LAST (1956). Director: Blake Edwards. 

When prohibition mobster Big Dan Hennessy (Alan Reed of I, the Jury) is wiped out by an ambitious underling, Max (Jesse White), the latter discovers that the dead man has left everything to an employee, singer-dancer Rosie (Lucy Marlow), including his stake in all of his rackets. This causes problems for Rosie because she is engaged to a cop, Jimmy Murphy (Richard Long). Surveying all this while having little impact on events is the late Dan's benign henchman, Gino Lupo (Frankie Laine), who also sings now and then. Max cooks up the idea of having handsome dancer Dominic Rodriguez (Anthony Dexter of Fire Maidens of Outer Space) become Rosie's partner and romance her, hoping to win her heart and hand and control of the rackets for Max. But Rosie may have other plans. 

Dick Long with Marlow

After the success of the film version of Guys and Dolls the previous year, there were all sorts of Damon Runyonesque-type stories featuring comical gangsters, of which He Laughed Last is one of the worst. Despite the title, the movie has virtually no laughs, and no one in the cast is remotely amusing. Frankie Laine, whose character doesn't really have much to do in the story, has no great comic skill, Jesse White is as annoying and unfunny as ever, Richard Long is certainly no comedian, and although Lucy Marlow plays it cute she's not a barrel of laughs, either. Blake Edwards script is, in a word, a stinker, an idea that should never have seen the light of day. 

Marlow with Anthony Dexter

He Laughed Last is not an actual musical, although Marlow is given two numbers and Laine sings a couple of times as well. The one and only highlight of the picture is when Rosie and that Latin Lover Boy Dominic dance a sexy tango together and the movie is (very) temporarily scintillating. Dexter had played Valentino five years earlier and uses the smooth assurance he displayed in that film to good affect in this, but he doesn't have enough screen time. Blake Edwards also directed Bring Your Smile Along, his first film, which also featured Marlow and Laine. It's a question why Laine even chose to appear in this picture. This might be the only time Richard Long was billed as "Dick Long."

Verdict: One tango does not a worthwhile movie make. *1/2. 

I, THE JURY

Peggie Castle and Biff Elliott

I, THE JURY (1953). Writer/director: Harry Essex.

"No one should belong to someone so completely that it blocks out the rest of the world, because if something should happen, you're lost." -- Dr. Charlotte Manning.

"From now on no one cuts me so deep I can't close the wounds." --Myrna Devlin

"You're not gettin' the heebie jeebies, are ya, baby?" -- Mike Hammer

Mike Hammer (Biff Elliot) is so outraged that someone murdered a friend, Jack, who saved his life during the war, that he vows to take care of the guilty party himself, being judge, jury and executioner. His friend, Captain Pat Chambers (Preston Foster) hopes to find the killer first. There are numerous suspects: art dealer George Kalecki (Alan Reed), who may be up to shady business; alleged college student Hal Kines (Bob Cunningham), who may be Kalecki's "playmate," among other things; the flirtatious Bellamy twins, Esther and Mary (Tani Guthire and Dran Hamilton); and a host of toughs and other nasty characters. Jack's girlfriend Myrna (Frances Osborne) has been seeing the sophisticated and wealthy shrink Dr. Charlotte Manning (Peggie Castle), with whom Mike becomes involved during the investigation. Then there are more murders, and Mike becomes more frustrated and violent. Who the hell is shooting all of these people, and why? I, the Jury, based on Mickey Spillane's first Mike Hammer novel, is an absorbing and well-acted thriller, with Biff Elliot, the first and arguably best Mike Hammer, playing the pants off of the role; he's just perfect as Hammer, with his good looks, sensitivity and sex appeal playing well off his brusque, rude and two-fisted manner. Castle [Beginning of the End] gives one of her more memorable performances, and there is fine work from the others mentioned, as well as from Mary Anderson [Chicago Calling] as Eileen Vickers. Margaret Sheridan [The Thing from Another World] makes a more than creditable Velma, Hammer's helpful secretary. Franz Waxman contributed an interesting jazz score. The story is the usual twisting Spillane concoction, watered down from the novel, and with the usual soupcon of misogyny underlining the whole story. When Kalecki breaks down into tears when he hears news of Hal's death, it seems clear the film is hinting that he was in love with him, but otherwise this is not explored. Some good dialogue sprinkled throughout. Elisha Cook Jr. and Nestor Paiva have smaller roles. This was remade with Armand Assante as Hammer about thirty years later.

Verdict: Highly interesting Mike Hammer picture. ***.